1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to time reminder or indicator devices associated with medicament containers for indicating when a dose of medicine should be taken. In particular, the invention relates to a time reminder system for use with blister-pack containers of discrete quantities of medicine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous prior art examples of medicament containers provided with time reminder or calendar devices. Generally, the containers have, affixed to them, reminder devices which bear a plurality of indicia corresponding to desired time periods: for example, the indicia may correspond to hours, days of the week, etc. In the case of bottle-type containers, the time indicia are generally affixed to a member which is slidably or rotatably movable relative to a fixed index mark on the container, or vice-versa. In certain embodiments, however, the medicament container may take the form of a blister-pack pill dispenser having individually openable pill pockets and the indicia in such cases may be nothing more than printed information adjacent each blister associating each discrete dose (i.e. blister contents) with a day of the week, for example, indicating that the medication dosage in that blister is required to be taken at the indicated time. This type of time reminder device is commonly used in containers of birth control pills and one such device is known for dispensing aspirin tablets, each blister being marked with a day of the week. In any event, the indicia used on such dispensers are an integral part of the dispensers and, if for some reason a different time schedule is desired, the dispenser is unusable for such different schedule and a whole new dispenser/indicia package must be prepared for each new schedule.
In some instances, medications must be prescribed by licensed physicians so that the proper dosages may be taken by the patient at uncommon although prescribed intervals (not simply daily) under proper supervision. In such instances, calendar type dispensing devices are helpful to the consumer. It has been found, however, that such prior art dispensing devices are either not available with respect to certain medications because of regulatory prohibitions or are not easily alterable to vary the dispensing time schedule in response to certain conditions which may require a different regimen.
For certain medicaments which are available over-the-counter (OTC) for general use, but which must be prescribed by a physician in a certain regimen for some indications, the inability to purchase the medicament OTC with a reminder device is an inconvenience. For example, aspirin is available OTC and is used for a variety of purposes. It has recently been determined as a result of some test studies that certain regimens of aspirin may be helpful for certain medical indications. For example, certain dosages of aspirin taken periodically were shown to be helpful in reducing the incidence of secondary myocardial infarction (MI). The clinical data has, to date, apparently been insufficient to obtain governmental regulatory approval to enable aspirin manufacturers to market analgesic products for an indication of secondary MI directly to the public without professional supervision. That is, for example, it is not yet permissible to sell an aspirin product directly to the public in a container provided with a time reminder system suggesting that specific doses be taken at prescribed times in order to decrease the likelihood of a secondary MI.
Nevertheless, it is permissible for physicians to prescribe specific aspirin regimens to certain patients and it would, therefore, be desirable to provide appropriate calendar type aspirin dispensers to be used by physicians. However, once a prior art calendar dispenser is given to a patient, because the indicia are an integral part of the dispenser, it is usable for only a limited time until the medication runs out. At that time, the patient must return to the physician or renew the prescription to obtain another calendar type dispenser. This may not only be an inconvenience to the physician and the patient, but it may also be unnecessary if the physician can more easily direct how the patient should continue taking medication. Some mechanism is desirable to enable physicians to treat selected patients easily and conveniently.
It would be desirable to provide the physician with a time reminder device which could be prescribed for particular patients and applied to containers or dispensers generally available OTC. Thus, for example, a calendar type blister-pack container could be initially dispensed by the physician together with a separable time reminder device indicating a predetermined dosage schedule. When the medicine is all used up, the consumer could transfer the separable time reminder device to another medicament container which could be purchased OTC. Thus, a particular patient would be able to obtain an initial prescription from a physician and, subsequently, purchase medicine containers over-the-counter without the inconvenience of returning to the physician or a pharmacy merely to pick up medicine which is available OTC.
In many instances, medication is prescribed on a varying schedule in order for the patient to be slowly introduced to or withdrawn from an efficacious medicament level. For example, beta blockers, anticonvulsants and antidepressants must generally be prescribed in stages. In situations where a physician may desire to provide a patient with a time reminder device in association with medication which must be introduced or withdrawn in stages, it would be desirable to provide the physician with a variety of time reminder devices usable with a common container such that the regimen for taking the medication would be easily variable in order to reflect the elements of dosage quantity and frequency of the various desirable stages.
In view of the above, it is an object of this invention to provide a time reminder system having an indicia means separable from a medicament dispenser.
It is a further object to provide a time reminder system which enables a blister-pack medicament dispenser to be usable either with or without any time reminder indicia.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a time reminder system which enables a physician to prescribe for selected patients a medicament regimen which may be monitored by the physician as well as conveniently refilled by the patient by OTC purchases of medicament.
An additional object of this invention is to provide a reminder system for a blister-pack medicament dispenser wherein the time schedule of the system is easily variable.